Album · 2012

Tracklist

1. Pump It Up (3:13)2. Love Is All Around (4:35)3. Sock It To Me (3:09)4. Get Down To It (3:19)5. Shot Of You (2:37)6. Heat Of The Passion (2:56)7. Save Your Lies (2:51)8. Feel Thang (3:18)9. Find A Way (4:34)10. Taste Of Your Lovin' (3:48)11. Back In My Life (3:46)12. Coming Home (5:23)13. My One And Only (3:20)14. Don't Play With My Head (3:37)15. You Gotta Go (3:25)16. I Love You (2:35)

YOUNGBLOOD NO RETREAT reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

To sum this album up in a simple sentence : Think of LED ZEPPELIN meets STEELHEART with a throw of naughty WARRANT. Yeah, that's basically the elements that I found in 'No Retreat', and out of 16 tracks, sure there are few fillers, but if you count only the best 12 tracks, this is surely a great album, especially for those who love 80s style hard rock.

The first three songs are excellent. 'Pump It Up' is superb, 'Love Is All Around' is even better and check out the singing, what a voice! 'Sock It To Me' is a nice uptempo acoustical-driven track. 'Shot of You' is clearly the most brilliant track of this album uncontested, no doubt about it. Other great tracks that you should check out here are 'Save Your Lies', 'Feel Thang', and 'Taste of Your Lovin' is also pretty good. The last track, 'I Love You', is strangely has jazzy touch to it, some hate it for sure, but I dig it.

The rest are average, some songs that you could have just left out and no one will missed it. 'Coming Home' shows a nice vocal range but the chorus is anticlimax. 'Heat of The Passion' has potential but in the end, it just somehow didn't turn out great. Production is excellent and kudos for that since this is an old dusty recordings from the late 80s. Recommended!

No Retreat is the debut album by US hard rock act Youngblood. The album, released in 2012, has what is becoming to be a familiar story surrounding it: released in the modern era but written and recorded many years ago, in this case No Retreat was recorded in 1989. It was scheduled for a release that never happened. That is until Eonian Records decided to finally allow the release to see the light of day with a remastered and remixed sound.

Speaking personally, No Retreat is a difficult album for me. Not because it’s particularly groundbreaking or complex, but because Youngblood plays a style of hard rock which is not really my niche. If it weren’t recorded when it was I’d call it retro, and I think the band has something of a glam edge to their music. Having little to no background in either 80’s hard rock or glam rock/metal, and even less interest, I have nothing really to form a basis on for this review. So why review it at all? Well, as a reviewer I’ve always considered it something of a privilege to receive an album directly from its record label before release date, so you could say I feel obligated to review the albums I’m sent. The only reason I’ve ever had for not reviewing a promo was if it was a rare case when the words just wouldn’t flow, which unfortunately can happen with any album, not just in genres you’re not so familiar with.

So, as such, this review of Youngblood’s No Retreat should be taken entirely in the context described above with an understanding that the text of this review, or any review, is way more important than any score attached to it (which I haven’t even decided on as of writing this review up until this point).

What makes this most difficult for me though is that despite not having any interest in the genre, I can’t just write it off as a band out of their time, because even without that interest I can hear that No Retreat is a well performed and written release and by putting my objective hat on for a moment I can’t actually see anything inherently wrong with it and I expect fans of the style Youngblood plays will find what these guys do highly appealing. The music is clearly produced, and full of rocking riffs and catchy vocal hooks. Had the album’s original release happened as planned, I imagine Youngblood would have done quite well with an album like this one under their belt.

Is it still relevant in 2012? Well, probably not to all, especially the kids. Rock has, for better or worse depending on your perspective, moved on a lot since 1989, but for those who think rock moved on for the worse or if you’re simply a retro-head, I guess you could do a lot worse than Youngblood. Since I have to score this review for publishing I’m going to go with an above average grade rating, however rating this one for me was just a formality and hopefully the above text comes across as positively as it was intended.

Authentic 80s hard rock released in 2012, Youngblood's "No Retreat" was recorded back in 1989 but only got released now, thanks to Eönian Records (remastered and remixed). I, for one, really appreciate that this album got released, because it is a lesson in groove and attitude, and reminds us of the happy partying days of pre-grunge hard rock.

The opening track 'Pump it Up' is a funky affair almost beating Aerosmith at what they did best, and 'Love Is All Around' is equally rich in groove, plus its basic drive is no less than an invitation to a carefree 80s hard rock party. Not all tracks are equally up to scratch - which can be expected from an album with 16 songs on it, but the two above-mentioned tracks as well as the party metal track 'Sock It To Me' (this one features some pretty awesome melodic metal riffage) are really good, which also applies to 'Feel Thang' which is another funk oriented track, although the verses are kinda sleazy. The amazing 'Back in My Life' is probably the best track of the album, rivaling Kixx and Def Leppard (back when Def Leppard were good, that is). The last handful of songs - with the exception of 'You Got To Go' - are, I must say, pretty cheesy and not something I find interesting at all.

True to 80s hard rock, the production is characterized by the use of reverb, but, thankfully, this is with restrain, so it is not like everything is drowned in reverb, but the music is definitely stadium-ready, if you know what I mean. some listeners might find the varying production quality from track to track distracting, but given the history of the album, this is something I am more than willing to accept.

Fans of uplifting pre-grunge hard rock should like this album - and especially if dirty funk hard rock in the vein of Aerosmith is their cup of tea. "No Retreat" is admittely not really original, but as party-oriented semi-glammy hard rock goes, it is a very good album indeed.